George Lucas to Headline Comic-Con with Rare Public Talk

Comic-Con made its official debut Thursday in San Diego, and as usual, tens of thousands of attendees—many of them pop culture aficionados from around the world—are converging in the California city.

This year, there’s an especially historic star power coming to Comic-Con. For the first time, George Lucas is making an appearance at the convention, even though the event has been connected to Lucas’s films and franchises, “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” from the very beginning.

Comic-Con’s “true full-circle moment” this year, said Chief Communications and Strategy Officer David Glanzer, is that “Nearly five decades ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, and the booth featured [comic book artist] Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional item.”

Lucas is planning to attend Comic-Con with his crew to discuss a major new project at a Sunday panel moderated by Queen Latifah. According to Lucasfilm, the group will discuss the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will open in Los Angeles next year. Lucas will be joined by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and Oscar-winning artist Doug Chiang, whose work has been featured on multiple Star Wars films and animated projects over the past 30 years. Together, they’ll explain more about the new museum, which will be “dedicated to the celebration of illustrated narratives and storytelling through the art of film, comics, and concept art” and will include an archive of Lucas’s collection.

Comic-Con Has Come a Long Way, Baby

Comic-Con has changed a lot since it was founded in 1970. It started as a relatively small comic book convention, and over the years, it has grown in popularity. Comic-Con now gets around 130,000 visitors each year. Attendees go to Comic-Con to shop for collectibles and to cosplay, but they are also there for access to special sneak peeks, panel discussions, and world premieres for new films and projects.

Sci-fi Icons “Alien” and “Predator” Are Making Some Major Waves

There will be a world premiere at Comic-Con for a new series called Alien: Earth, which is based on Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise and is a prequel to the original 1979 Alien film. The new series is being directed by Noah Hawley and will explore the Alien mythos and characters. It’s set to premiere tomorrow in Hall H, Comic-Con’s largest venue, and will be available for streaming in August.

Another project making big waves is a new feature called Predator: Badlands, a spinoff of the classic sci-fi series Predator. This upcoming film, as described by the studio, is a “fresh take on an established brand, reversing the hunter-prey dynamic we’ve seen in the previous films, and for the first time putting the relentless Predator in the crosshairs.” The film is being directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who put the series back on the map with Prey, which was released in 2022. The Predator: Badlands panel will be moderated by Trachtenberg, and the cast, including Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (the latter of whom plays the alien Dek), will be there to discuss the new take on this classic sci-fi storyline.

Marvel Will Be Scaling Back Its Appearance This Year

Marvel Studios has made the decision to scale back its presence at Comic-Con this year, with the studio saying it won’t be putting on a Hall H showcase, as it has in years past. This decision was made because the next “Avengers” film is changing up its release plans; Variety reports that ongoing production in the UK this summer led to logistical issues for the studio.

Sci-Fi Stars Are Stepping Up to Fill the Vacuum

The absence of Marvel at the top of Comic-Con’s marquee hasn’t been without replacement. Sci-fi titans have dominated the press circuit ahead of Comic-Con and are ready to step in to fill the void of Marvel’s scaled-back appearance. Hall H is still packed with big-name programming this year, and the weekend should be rife with energy.

Ryan Gosling and Peacemaker Are Headlining a Panel

There’s another major film coming to Comic-Con, based on the book of the same name by Andy Weir, best known for his novel and subsequent film adaptation, The Martian. Project Hail Mary will be released in theaters in 2023 and stars Ryan Gosling as former schoolteacher Ryland Grace, who mysteriously wakes up on a spaceship with no idea what’s going on or how he got there. Over time, Grace realizes he is the last hope for the survival of the human race. Gosling will appear on a panel for the film on Saturday alongside directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who have a number of projects in the works, including the Spider-Verse trilogy.

Fans of the Peacemaker show on HBO Max should also be excited because there will be an update at Comic-Con on the second season of the series. Series creator James Gunn, who has been tapped to helm DC’s next reboot with Superman, will be joined by the Peacemaker cast for a panel in which they will discuss behind-the-scenes footage and show off some of the new season.

Fans in Costumes Will Fill the Streets of San Diego

Comic-Con isn’t just for superstar films and insider announcements. Fans of all stripes will fill the Comic-Con floor and the surrounding streets of San Diego in cosplay or costumes. Princesses, warriors, aliens, galactic heroes—countless characters from across all media will be present in human form at Comic-Con this weekend, which runs through Sunday, July 27.

In addition to Lucas’s official Comic-Con debut and the galaxy far, far away that always seems to make a splash at San Diego’s pop culture shindig, fans will have a chance to experience new takes on their favorite alien and sci-fi stories this year.